


I Hate Badgers

by apple_cidre



Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Animal Death, Death lmao, Gen, Jayfeather isn't as rude for once bc he's being helpless again, Long Fights, firestar isn't important again lmao, i think warriors is dead on this website, my ocs are so unoriginal but i can't think of anything else
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-03-14
Packaged: 2019-11-18 05:15:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18114026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apple_cidre/pseuds/apple_cidre
Summary: Thunder lives alone. He is a young cat, and has met a ThunderClan patrol. It was not a very friendly meeting. He has agreed to stay out of their way. Although, a clash with a fierce badger lets him cross path with Clan cats again.





	I Hate Badgers

**Author's Note:**

> this is how my boy thunder gets stuck with a super religious cult that lives in the forest and lots of people die.

Hunger pulled Thunder from sleep. The ginger tom hauled himself out of his makeshift nest and stalked around the forest, careful not to step into Clan territory again. The young cat respected others’ boundaries ever since he ran into a ThunderClan patrol. They were defending their territory from cats like him, he was lucky not to get in a fight. He thought about what it was like to live in a community like the Clans, and he thought of himself leading a patrol like the one he’d recently met. Thunder shook the thought out of his head. _Joining a Clan? You sound like a kit! What would you do, walk right into their camp uninvited and ask to join a group you don’t know anything about?_ he thought.

Thunder sniffed around, trying to catch any scents of prey. After some time, he caught the faintest stench of something, but over that was the scent of rabbit. The tom licked his lips as he spotted brown fur adjacent to a bush. He approached it slowly, eyeing it hungrily. Thunder waved his tail in delight, and the rabbit bolted away at the sight of the movement. _Mouse-brain!_ he scolded himself as he raced after the prey. He would have normally been more cautious, but was starving. He ignored other scents, his surroundings, and the fact that he was making lots of noise around the forest.

When the tom caught up to the rabbit, it suddenly turned and vanished down a rabbit hole. “Fox-dung!” he spat, but his frustration gave away to fear as that faint scent he picked up before was very strong now and he heard a growl behind him. Thunder turned to see a striped head and black eyes glaring at him. _Just my luck!_ Thunder hissed and threw a claw at the badger, hitting it on the muzzle, making the creature angrier. He stepped back, only for his paw to land on a large stick and unbalance him. The cat moved out of the way just in time to avoid a heavy paw coming at him. Snarling, he scored his claws down the badger’s flank and leapt back. Hunger and exhaustion made itself be known to him again as he threw a not-so-strong claw to the badger’s cheek. The beast growled and flashed out a paw, and Thunder couldn’t move in time to avoid a painful blow to the shoulder.

Thunder gritted his teeth and swung his other paw at the badger’s head, catching it on its ear. He recoiled as jaws snapped at his throat and he clawed the badger’s nose. It snarled as clamped its jaws around Thunder’s foreleg. He yowled in agony and he threw his other paw to the badger’s eye, but his shoulder was weakening the blows. The badger let go and its paw struck Thunder’s side. He prayed for anything to help him as he avoided the badger’s attacks, but exhaustion was slowing him down.

He thought he’d just imagined it, but Thunder heard a yowl and gray fur flashed by and landed on the badger’s back. The badger growled and tried to shake the other cat off of it. Thunder stepped forward to help, but his legs buckled and he collapsed. The badger slammed into a tree, making the cat fall off, winded. Thunder forced himself to get up and threw himself at the badger, who was clawing the other cat. He distracted the badger long enough to hear pawsteps coming. He recognized Thornclaw and Brackenfur from the other day. Brackenfur jumped on the badger’s back, slashing its ears as Thornclaw raked his claws down the badger’s side. The gray-pelted cat, who Thunder realized was a she, eventually jumped up and raced to rake her claws down the badger’s face. The beast was fierce, even outnumbered, it threw off Brackenfur and a paw flashed out and knocked the she away. Thunder noticed that Thornclaw was limping, and he came to help him.

Thunder was just throwing his claws at the badger as he noticed the other cats were fighting in sync, and using unique moves. He was distracted in such fascination, and he didn’t notice until he was hit that the badger swung a heavy blow at him. He was thrown to the side, pain flaring on the side of his neck. He felt dizzy for a second, and when he came back into awareness, he saw the gray she-cat yelp and push Thornclaw away only to get struck down by the badger. Brackenfur yowled and clawed the badger in the eye. The black-and-white creature whined and finally lumbered away.

Now that the treat was gone, Thunder’s adrenaline cleared and all his wounds became known. He was bruised and bleeding, and all his wounds stung, but he was worried about the dark gray she. Thornclaw hovered over her, whispering “Oh, StarClan.” Thunder saw the gash on her neck going down to her chest, staining her fur red. He stepped forward, but again, his own body failed him and he fell to the ground. Distantly, he heard Brackenfur meow. “We have to get them to camp, grab Mothpaw.”

Suddenly, Thunder was lifted by his scruff, but he didn’t care. He was too exhausted and everything hurt.

Thunder was barely conscious when they reached the camp, and he heard horrified exclamations around him, but they were mostly about Mothpaw. He looked up and saw the concerned green eyes of a ginger tom. “What happened?” he queried.

“Badger.” Brackenfur replied a little curtly.

The orange tom looked at Thunder warily. “Is this the cat Rabbitpaw ran into the other day?” Brackenfur nodded. “Go see Leafpool.” The tom pointed his nose to a brown and white tabby, who was already helping Mothpaw and Thornclaw into a den. Thunder was once again dragged by the scruff to the den. Inside, a gray tabby tom was pressing cobwebs to Mothpaw’s neck. Thornclaw and Brackenfur licked their own scratches and Leafpool smeared something on his wounds. He looked at her questioningly and she quickly answered his thoughts. “It’s to stop infection.” He rested his chin on his paws, but quickly raised his head again when the gray tabby let out a distressed mew. “No, no! Mothpaw, stay with us.”

Leafpool looked at him with sympathy and grief, Mothpaw’s breathing had become extremely shallow, and the gash on her neck started to smell foul. “The wound is too deep, Jayfeather.” Leafpool shook her head. Thunder looked at the spotted gray cat in horror. She had saved him, but it cost her life. “Hang in there, Mothpaw, don’t give up. You’ll become a warrior after this.” Jayfeather kept working on the scrap of fur desperately, but her breathing stopped and her eyes were glazed.

“Why am I so helpless?” Jayfeather growled. When Thunder’s cuts were covered with cobwebs Leafpool rested her tail on Jayfeather as an attempt to comfort him. The tabby shook her off and pushed three poppy seeds to Thunder. “Eat them, it’ll ease the pain.” Thunder lapped them up obediently, still thinking about the death-scent in the den. He was also given an herb for shock. Eventually, he started to feel drowsy. _If I had been careful, this wouldn’t have happened. Three cats wouldn’t have been wounded, and one wouldn’t be dead!_ Thunder thought, he didn’t know anything about these cats, but felt sorry for them and blamed himself for Mothpaw’s death.

“You’re safe now,” he heard Leafpool whisper to him as Jayfeather saw to Thornclaw and Brackenfur, who were stiff with grief.

Even when the memory of seeing the cat who’d saved him die haunted him, Thunder was eventually pulled into a deep sleep.

  


**Author's Note:**

> and then this is the worst and best thing that's happened to him.
> 
> too lazy to proofread because i'm leaving in like a few and i'm rushing


End file.
